Dangerous Personality - Chapter 9

The silvery gray tie wrapped many, many times around Chi Qing’s wrist.

The two of them weren’t standing more than half a foot apart. Even though it was very dark, this distance was enough for them to see each other clearly.

Xie Lin was crouching down at that moment, and actually hadn’t seen Chi Qing’s face fully. From this angle, he could only see half of a deathly pale, bony wrist sticking out of the sweater of the person who had entered, and those familiar black gloves a bit further up. Because he was holding an umbrella, and the umbrella happened to be covering up half his face, Xie Lin could only see his chin and a flash of his bright red lips.

Bought a knife, doesn’t like cats, has a cut on his finger.

If these key factors could only be called ‘suspicious,’ then adding on the ironclad evidence of coming to the first crime scene carrying an umbrella at this sensitive moment, this gentleman with the surname Chi might have been more than simply suspicious.

Plop.

At that moment, the rainwater that had gathered together along the eaves of the roof dropped, crashing heavily over his umbrella.

Xie Lin had thought there was a certain probability of the murderer reoffending on a rainy day, but he never thought it would be this much of a coincidence. He slowly let go of the serrated knife that the murderer had left behind at the scene, taking the lead in breaking the silence, “We meet again.”

Even in this kind of a situation, he didn’t look nervous in the slightest, and when he spoke he was even still wearing that smile. It was just that those pair of eyes that usually smiled year round were at that moment filled only with coldness “I’ve run into you this many times within a single day, and you still think it isn’t fate?”

Chi Qing’s gaze lingered on that knife he’d put down.

The knife was stained with blood.

Because it needed to cut open flesh, and possibly to the corpse’s bones, the body of the knife had obvious abrasion marks on it.

The saw teeth were different from the flat and smooth edge of a normal knife; the zigzagging teeth were rugged and staggered, they even still had some ground viscera caught in them from when they were used to cut open flesh. Because of the filthy surroundings, those bits that looked like ground meat caught between teeth had long since become dark black “grime.”

The image of Xie Lin sitting in the car with the same type of knife earlier that day flashed before Chi Qing’s eyes.

—”I live near Haimao, do you think you’re on my way?”

Chi Qing blinked his eyes extremely slowly. He took the umbrella that he’d been holding low and lifted it up, revealing the remaining half of his face. This time, he didn’t deny it, “It is indeed fate.”

Just after Chi Qing’s voice had dropped off, Xie Lin made the first move—he raised a hand and pulled the necktie from around his neck off a bit.

Xie Ling tried to bind his hands and take him prisoner, giving up the unnecessary resistance, “If you’re good, then I’ll be gentler when I make my move……so as to avoid that pale white skin of yours being covered in marks when that moment comes.”

However, when those words reached Chi Qing’s ears, they sounded like a threat.

It was common for criminal suspects to want to silence whoever discovered them when caught at the scene of the murder—Although, not so much for one to go to such great lengths over a couple of cat corpses.

But the other party was sick, so it was hard to say.

The area surrounding the factory was completely void of human presence. This was originally just some place that had been abandoned close to the rear gate of the Haimao xiaoqu. Even during the day people rarely came here, not to mention the depths of the night in the rain.

Ordinary people might be afraid, but Chi Qing had reached this age without any idea of what kind of a feeling fear was.

But what he didn’t realize was that it was exactly his indifference to the crime scene that made seem even more suspicious in that moment.

Chi Qing returned the compliment, “Why don’t you worry about yourself.”

“Seeing that we haven’t come to an agreement,” Xie Lin had already walked over to the door during their conversation, and as he spoke the second half of his sentence, his entire body pressed forward at a swift speed, “Don’t blame me for disregarding courtesy.”

The instant Xie Lin made his move, Chi Qing retreated back a step.

Just as the two of them were almost touching each other, the fingers Chi Qing had been resting on his umbrella the whole time shifted upward a few inches, finding the switch to retract the umbrella; that transparent umbrella with the long handle abruptly closed. He exchanged the position of the tip, the sharp point of the umbrella stabbing directly forward!

Xie Lin tilted his head, using his elbow to block it, forcing the trajectory of the umbrella to change course, evading the umbrella tip striking towards him in the rain.

Despite this, the side of Xie Lin’s neck was still scratched by Chi Qing’s attack.

“Very clever,” Xie Lin grabbed the umbrella with one hand, using the pad of a finger from his other hand to rub that long, thin scratch, “you even know to use your umbrella.”

The man’s collar was wide open, the shirt on his body was gradually getting soaked by the rain. His physical appearance often let off a type of natural suggestiveness, and the scratch from the umbrella looked like a cat scratch.

Chi Qing didn’t say anything. He carried his umbrella in hand, the tip still looking like a silver needle, pointing directly at him.

Ji Mingrui was completely unaware what his own good friend was going through at that moment.

He finished writing the reports he needed to do, and only then pressed at the vertebrae in his neck, lifting his head to glance at his phone.

After he finished checking his unread messages, he received the second critical hit of the day, “……”

– Thank you guys.

– It’s exactly because this world has you guys that I doubt everyday whether or not I exist purely to lower the average IQ of humankind.

– But I have a question.

– How the hell did you both arrive at the same conclusion?

Although Xie Lin had left right after saying all of that, and they had intended to follow after him, Bin-ge addressed them only, “You guys aren’t going, finish the reports that need to get done today and then we’ll see. He won’t have any kind of problems on his own.”

Standing before a genius, they were indeed superfluous.

Ji Mingrui could almost imagine what it would look like if both Chi Qing and Xie Lin were pushing forward the same idea.

He let out a deep sigh, then sent one final message:

– When we get a chance, there’s someone I’ve really got to introduce you to. You two are on the same wavelength for sure.

However, at that moment the two people who were ‘on the same wavelength’ were still exchanging blows. Chi Qing’s phone has long since fallen during the fight. It had fallen into the grass and was touching the mud, and after it had slid for some distance it was completely discarded.

Xie Lin had been worried about the umbrella in his hand from the start, and slowed down the tempo. That umbrella was a double edged sword; when it was stabbing towards him, it was also likely to accidentally injure the person using it.

Thus, as Xie Lin fought, he also warned the person with whom he was exchanging blows, “Be careful.”

That person clearly didn’t want to talk to him.

The body of the umbrella swung a crisp arc through the air. Before it’s afterimage had disappeared, it swung directly at his exposed weak point—

Xie Lin didn’t dodge it.

Chi Qing’s goal wasn’t that he actually wanted to stab him, he just wanted to use it to shorten the distance between the two of them.

But Xie Lin received the blow, instead letting him get the upper hand at the key moment. He tenaciously restrained that umbrella, “I told you to be careful, put down the umbrella.”

“……”

Chi Qing was actually not an expert in close-combat fighting, due to his mysophobia.

Xie Lin also quickly remembered this special characteristic of his, and used the opportunity to press the man onto the ground.

This was his second time touching that pair of black-gloved hands. Because of the rain, both of their bodies were soaked beyond recognition. The excessively long bangs over Chi Qing’s forehead were already drenched by the rain, that pair of inky black eyes were much deeper than the surrounding night.

Xie Lin pressed him beneath his body, one hand restraining him, and the other reaching up to his own neck to untie the loose tie around his neck, tearing it off in one motion.

Chi Qing was vaguely aware that something wasn’t right, “What’re you doing.”

Xie Lin pulled off his tie and went to bind Chi Qing’s hands, “I’m afraid you won’t behave.”

That obviously expensive necktie was used as a piece of rope. The silvery gray necktie wrapped around Chi Qing’s wrists many, many times. Xie Lin hadn’t realized Chi Qing’s wrists were this thin; even after wrapping many times around, a good amount of length was left over.

Then, Chi Qing watched with wide eyes as the nutcase took the remaining half and wrapped it around his own wrist, binding their two hands together, then finally tying a tight, secure knot, “……”

This was determination to not let him run.

“Get up,” Xie Lin said.

Xie Lin pressed him in through the door on the same side of the car, then started the engine, and before starting to go, used the windshield wipers to brush away the rainwater that had collected on the windshield.

Chi Qing deeply thought he really is sick, he spends this much energy just getting in the car, “Where’re we going?”

Xie Lin asked back, “Are you dumb, where else would we be going?”

Chi Qing, “……”

Every person who sadistically kills animals has a certain latent criminal potential.

Chi Qing stared at those windshield wipers. Through the windshield, he tried to search for where Xie Lin might be taking him.

……

If they drove five kilometers straight ahead, they would reach the outskirts of the city.

Within three kilometers there was a mountain. It would be easy to make his move in one of those two places, and easy to hide a body too.

Or maybe this nutcase would bring him to his own home. The home is the place a person is most familiar with, and also the place that makes them feel the most safe. Many murderers would choose to commit their first crime within the area where they felt most at ease.

The car drove slowly along.

Chi Qing lowered his eyes, starting to silently calculate the route in his head.

If they were driving to the outskirts, how many traffic lights were along the way? How many service stations?

The roads were easily congested on rainy days. If he took advantage of the time stuck in traffic or at a traffic light, it wouldn’t be impossible for him to escape.

Xie Lin was completely unaware of what Chi Qing was thinking. If he knew, he’d probably want to bash open his head and take a look at what was going on inside.

The car drove on the road for about ten minutes.

The road conditions were about the same as what Chi Qing had expected. Before they’d even gotten off the highway, the speed of traffic on this road heading to the outskirts of the city slowed before his eyes, quickly merging into the road he’d been stuck in traffic for ages on the last time he went to the police station.

If he wanted to escape, this was undoubtedly the best time to do it.

Three minutes later, a black Maybach hadn’t been off the highway for long—the body of the car suddenly swerved left and right. The width of the swerving wasn’t large, but it was enough to attract the attention of the driver in the lane next to it; after all, the two cars had almost scraped against each other without warning.

This suddenly scared the driver from the other lane into almost slamming on the brakes.

“Shit,” a cigarette hung from the driver’s mouth, and he cursed as he glanced out the window, “Can you fucking drive—”

With this glance he saw the car in the lane next to him; the two people inside were awfully close together.

At the start, he thought this was some kind of scene that wasn’t suitable for children, and he wanted to curse the modern young people for being so insane. But then he took a closer look, realizing that the man in the passenger’s seat wearing a black sweater had suddenly shot up from his seat. He was holding onto the grab handle above the door, his whole body almost suspended in the air—like something out of an action film.

“……,” this scene almost scared the driver into letting the cigarette in his mouth fall onto his crotch.

(t/n: if you look at the raws now, you’ll only see the boxes of doom (□□) in place of ‘crotch,’ but I promise I have a screenshot of how it used to say that haha. Fortunately, not that many words in this series got boxed, but I’ll point the boxed words when they happen)

What are they playing at.

The Fast and the Furious?

Not only had the driver from the adjacent lane not imagined it, Xie Lin also hadn’t imagined that Chi Qing would suddenly throw himself over to try and get control of the steering wheel. When he couldn’t get control, he immediately tried to use all his strength to kick him. If the car doors hadn’t been locked, there was no doubt in his mind that Chi Qing would have kicked himself out of the car.

At the same time as he was stabilizing the steering wheel and trying to avoid the cars in the lane to the left, he was using the hand bound with Chi Qing’s to very effortfully press him back into his seat, “Are you insane—!?”

Chi Qing, “Let me out of the car.”

“I’ll say it again,” Chi Qing spoke coldly, “Let me out of the car.”

As the two people inside the car were fighting, the car had already continued for over a kilometer.

If they drove forward another kilometer, they’d reach the police department.

Xie Lin immediately accelerated, and as they got closer to his destination, Chi Qing gradually realized that the route was not exactly the same as the one he’d predicted.

Xie Lin suddenly engaged the emergency break, stopping at the entrance to the police station.

Xie Lin, “Get out.”

Chi Qing sat in the car, facing the huge two characters “Public Security” on the doors to the Yong’an-Division Police Station, his train of thought immediately breaking, “……?”

________